Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Scott McLaughlin took less than a lap to get around the outside of polesitter Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy, while Will Power initially dismissed Takuma Sato’s Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda to gain third.
Meyer Shank Racing’s Helio Castroneves moved forward, tried to pass Power for third but lost momentum and fell back behind Sato and Andretti Autosport-Honda’s Colton Herta, the latter pair then passing Power to gain third and fourth.
The first yellow flew on Lap 12 when Alexander Rossi’s Andretti car, which had jumped the start and had to give back the places he’d gained, suddenly slowed and started trickling down to pitlane speed on the inside of the track. Day over.
So the restart on Lap 17 of the 248-lap race would see McLaughlin leading Rosenqvist, Sato, Herta, Power, Castroneves, Scott Dixon of Ganassi, Josef Newgarden (Penske), Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi) and Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy. However, at the drop of the green Pato O’Ward was on the move, passing VeeKay, Newgarden and Ericsson by Lap 19 to move into eighth.
The other startling performer at this stage was rookie Kyle Kirkwood of AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy, who pitted under the caution, restarted 23rd and then charged forward to move into the Top 10 by Lap 28, running ninth behind O’Ward.
VeeKay was the first of the top dozen runners to pit on Lap 54, and then Ericsson pitted. McLaughlin and Rosenqvist stopped on Lap 57. Sato, Herta, Power and Dixon went to Lap 62, leaving Kirkwood, the first stopper, temporarily out front. Sato was hobbled by teammate David Malukas stalling as he left his pitbox, blocking Taku’s entry into his pitbox, and the two-time indy 500 winner tumbled down the order to 20th.
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